LinkedIn Sophisticated Marketer's Guide FINAL
LinkedIn Sophisticated Marketer's Guide FINAL
LinkedIn Sophisticated Marketer's Guide FINAL
Sophisticated
Marketers
The
Guide to
Table of Contents
A NOTE TO THE
SOPHISTICATED
MARKETER
CHAPTER 1:
WHY DOES MY
BUSINESS NEED
LINKEDIN?
WHY SHOULD
I BE READING
THIS GUIDE?
CHAPTER 3:
OPTIMIZING YOUR
PROFILE
CHAPTER 7:
EXPAND YOUR
TARGETED REACH
2434
34
CHAPTER 5:
EASILY KEEP
YOUR FINGER
ON THE PULSE
CHAPTER 4:
EXPAND YOUR
NETWORK OF
INFLUENCERS
910
CHAPTER 2:
MARKET TO
WHO MATTERS
1114
CHAPTER 8:
MEASURE THE
IMPACT AND
OPTIMIZE
3538
1517
CHAPTER 9:
UNLOCK THE POWER
OF LINKEDINS
PARTNER PROGRAM
3940
58
CHAPTER 6:
BUILD YOUR BRAND
AND COMPANY
PRESENCE
ORGANICALLY
1823
25 SOCIAL MEDIA
EXPERTS YOU
NEED TO KNOW
4142
A Note to the
Sophisticated Marketer
technologies. What worked during the
golden age of marketing still works today,
but marketers, their fuel, and platforms like
LinkedIn are the new black.
Why Should I Be
Reading This Guide?
LinkedIn has products that impact every stage of the purchase process.
The goal of this guide is to provide the absolute best, most up-to-date,
definitive guide for marketers to learn how to market to who matters on
LinkedIn as part of their integrated approach to marketing.
This guide is a labor of love for us here at LinkedIn. We created it to be a one-stop shop
for everything a marketer needs to know about getting the most value out of LinkedIn for
yourself and your company. Its not just an instruction manual, but a strategic guide with
lots of input from top thought leaders and LinkedIn marketing experts, combined with the
expertise of the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions team.
And its all about how to truly tap into the potential and power of social media marketing.
Thats because social media marketing is no longer a nice-to-have. Its a necessary
part of a successful integrated marketing approach for driving awareness, leads
and ultimately revenue.
We call this "The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide" because we feel its time to take social
media marketing to the next level, moving beyond theory to enlightened practice. Its time
to get real results with your social marketing, and this guide will help.
CHAPTER 1
These days in the business world, relationships matter more than ever.
People tune out irrelevant or promotional messages. But they do want
to engage with companies that focus on sharing useful and relevant
information and content. The companies that inform and engage arent
just sellingtheyre building relationships.
430+
396
380
413
218
238
259
277
296
313
332
350
Q113 Q213 Q313 Q413 Q114 Q214 Q314 Q115 Q215 Q315 Q415 Q116
Source: LinkedIn Announces First Quarter 2016 Results, LinkedIn, 2016
CHAPTER 1
89%
77%
77%
61%
0.21%
91%
64%
29%
27%
Google+
16%
CHAPTER 2
INTEREST-BASED TARGETING
Group Membership, Skills,
Field of Study
PERSONA TARGETING
Job Searchers, Opinion Leaders,
Mass Affluent, Business Travelers
LinkedIn is the only platform that the majority of B2B marketers consider
to be effective.
"Content Marketing Research Report," Content Marketing Institute, 2014
Y
OUR OWN AUDIENCE DATA
Target Account Lists
Market to Who Matters: Achieve Your Marketing Goals
CHAPTER 2
3. LONG-FORM POSTS
Using an intuitive blogging tool that
seamlessly integrates with your profile
on LinkedIn, you can publish new and
previously published content on LinkedIn to
quickly grow your audience and network.
4. CONTENT UPLOADED
TO SLIDESHARE
SlideShare is not just a repository for your
slide presentations. Its a social channel
where you can establish your brand as a
thought leader and authority around topics
and keywords.
CHAPTER 2
DISPLAY AD INTEGRATION IN
SOCIAL MEDIA IS STARTING TO PICK UP.
44%
28%
28%
Planning to
Integrate
Integrating
Now
No
Integration
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
Optimizing
Your Profile
This infographic highlights all the opportunities for getting the most
from your profile.
Every day, we see millions of professionals find others and get found
through LinkedIn search.
Whether someone is searching for people, jobs, companies or groups, we provide the most
relevant results based on your professional identity, your network and how the people in
your network engage with LinkedIn. Plus, one of the first steps many members take when
receiving content from a company or another member is clicking through to the personal
profile or Company Page to learn about the sender. Thats why its critical for you and your
company to maintain complete and optimized profiles.
HOW YOU CAN BENEFIT FROM AN OPTIMIZED PROFILE
As a marketer, you can use LinkedIn for networking and to further your profession. After all,
these days, very few people end up working for a single company their entire career. So
whether youre actively seeking a new position or maximizing the job you are already in, its
wise to make sure your profile is set up for maximum exposure and engagement. In addition,
adding rich media content, such as SlideShare presentaions, videos and infographics to
your profile, is a fantastic way to showcase visual assets to profile visitors.
HOW YOUR COMPANY CAN BENEFIT FROM AN OPTIMIZED PROFILE
It goes without saying that your company and all of its employees should optimize their
LinkedIn profiles. After all, an optimized profile can boost the visibility of your company
and its content in the search resultsboth on and off the network. Thats because
search engines like Google scour pages and URLs for keywords, and LinkedIn profiles
offer many opportunities to embed keywords, such as within the LinkedIn URL, other
URLs you list within your profile, job titles and descriptions, and content links you include.
So if your company and its employees have optimized their profiles, you could very well
gain an advantage when prospective customers are searching for companies, products
and services like yours.
CHAPTER 3
CEO of POSSIBLE
10
CHAPTER 4
11
CHAPTER 4
You can follow Influencers
without being connected to them.
In addition to joining in rich conversations,
you will see which Influencers and topics
are driving the most interestperhaps
sparking an idea of your own for a post or
content asset. Plus the ability for LinkedIn
members to like and share Influencer
content lets you quickly find out what the
people in your network are reading and
reacting to, helping you unearth new ideas.
Want to broaden your horizons? Take
advantage of discovery modules within
LinkedIn to help you find more relevant
content based on the people youre
following and the posts youre reading.
5,900,00+
LinkedIn FOLLOWERS
Bill Gates is an Influencer with over
5,731,000 followers. One of his posts
garnered over 1.9M (1,938,420) views,
more than 11K (11,773) thumbs up,
and over 4000 (4343) comments.
136,000+
LinkedIn FOLLOWERS
30,000
VIEWS
49% of Influencer
followers are directorlevel and above.
12
CHAPTER 4
13
CHAPTER 4
14
CHAPTER 5
In fact, like most marketers, you probably find its increasingly difficult to figure out what
matters most when reading news across multiple sources. Millions of professionals invest
their time on LinkedIn, staying on top of industry news through Pulse, the news app and
content brand for LinkedIn.
Weve not only improved the overall search functionality with faster autocomplete suggestions, but weve also made it easier for you to find Whats
New across timely world events and whats trending among professionals
like you worldwide.
Pulse offers a more relevant news experience with content tailored to your professional
interests throughout LinkedIn. Its the main vehicle for our social news experience across
web and mobile. And its a key way for marketers to stay current on all the latest insights
and trends.
ACCESS MORE RELEVANT CONTENT
With the LinkedIn Pulse app, you can access full articles and rich graphics from a wealth
of resources, through our partnerships with more than 750 publishers, such as Harvard
Business Review, TechCrunch, and Fast Company.
Pulse makes it possible to access tailored news based on your interests. Specifically, you as
a marketer can easily leverage all the great business knowledge flowing through LinkedIn in
the form of news, Influencer posts, industry updates, discussions, comments and more. And
because you can customize content based on your preferences, you can zero in on what
matters most to you. Think of Pulse as your daily newspaperone that lets you stay up to
speed whether youre on your desktop, mobile phone (Android or iOS) or tablet!
15
CHAPTER 5
ORGANIZE YOUR DAILY READS
Lists in the Pulse app allow you to organize
your channels into topics of your choice,
such as Technology, Sports, Favorites or
Must Reads. Any Channels or Influencer
content that you follow on LinkedIn.com
will automatically sync with the Pulse app,
and you can also add any blog or news
feed via the robust search functionality on
Pulse. As a result, you gain instant access
to the most relevant and personalized news
content that maps to your professional
interests.
DELIVERING SMART
RECOMMENDATIONS
We display stories based on a proprietary
algorithm that weighs your interests and
the stories trending among professionals
worldwide.
16
CHAPTER 5
AT A MINIMUM:
Ensure executive LinkedIn profiles are
filled out and optimized
M
ake sure the Company Page
is robust.
C
urate useful news as status updates
and on the Company Page.
U
se LinkedIn as a follow up after
meeting people online and especially
at offline events where business cards
are exchanged.
17
CHAPTER 6
Long-form posts
SlideShare
Company Pages are where you can catch the eye of prospective customers by featuring
thought leadership content or anything else that would be relevant to your target audience,
including links to your latest and greatest whitepapers, e-books, case studies and how-to
content.By delivering useful and engaging content, youll foster engagement and help your
message spread faster.
And remember: Integration with common Social Media Management vendors including
Adobe, Hootsuite, Percolate, Salesforce, Shoutlet, Spredfast and Sprinklr makes it easier
for you to manage your Page.
%
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Build Your Brand and Company Presence Organically: Content Marketing On LinkedIn
18
CHAPTER 6
Showcase Pages: Demonstrate thought leadership
with specific audiences
Like many companies, you likely consider many parts of its business as important. And to
give each its due attention, you likely have more than one voice. With Showcase Pages,
you can build a presence and present a unique voice for every important part of your
business. By creating dedicated pages for your more prominent brands, businesses and
initiatives using Showcase Pages, you can extend your LinkedIn presence.
2. Attract followers
3. Engage followers
4. Amplify through the network
In other words, you can create a distinct platform for each aspect of your business that has
its own message to share with its own target audience. Its a unique way to directly engage
the right people in the right context. And just as with Company Pages, your administrators
will be able to monitor performance through dedicated analytics tools within the Showcase
Page experience.
Build Your Brand and Company Presence Organically: Content Marketing On LinkedIn
19
CHAPTER 6
Attract More Followers
The more the merrier on the social merry-go-round. Here are some simple, effective
strategies for attracting more followers with your company updates:
E
ngage your colleagues. A study by BrightEdge found that 9 of the top 10 brands with
the most followers on LinkedIn have at least 60% of their employees on LinkedIn.
C
ultivate a larger following with a multi-channel approach. Encourage your teammates to
add a link to your company page in their email signatures. If needed, ask your designer
for help creating a customized banner or button.
A
dd a Follow button to your website. Your web team can pull a Follow button code from
developer.linkedin.com to add to your blog or website. This lets LinkedIn members follow
your company with a single click.
Build Your Brand and Company Presence Organically: Content Marketing On LinkedIn
20
CHAPTER 6
SlideShare: Tap into Visual Tendencies
We are all visual thinkers. In fact, 75% of the sensory neurons in our brains process visual
information. Visual content can help set you apart from text-heavy competition, and
SlideShare is the perfect channel for your visual content.
SlideShare is not just a repository for your slide presentations. Its a social channel where
you can establish your brand as a thought leader and authority around topics and keywords.
THROUGH SLIDESHARE, YOU CAN:
S
hare presentations, videos, infographics and other documents with your
LinkedIn network
Upload portfolios, conference talks, PDFs, marketing/sales presentations and more
Embed videos in presentations and add audio to make a webinar
Its almost not fair to ask for my take on SlideShare. I consider it one of the
top three plays in my own content marketing efforts. I contribute to the
SlideShare blog. I recommend it to every one of my clients and am hired
often to write and design the presentations.
However, Im biased for many reasons. Atop the list: SlideShareand its
integration with LinkedInaccounts for a massive chunk of my websites
traffic, has a lot to do with the authority Ive gained in content marketing and
copywriting for the web, and is helping to bring me all kinds of opportunities
including new business, partnerships, and speaking engagements.
If youre not using SlideSlide to distribute your content, youre missing out
on, what, 60 million eyeball opportunities a month? And if you are, you know
exactly how the service can align with your marketing goals.
Barry Feldman, Feldman Creative
Each month, more than 400,000 new pieces of content are added to SlideShare, which
hosts 70 million unique visitors monthly. On an average day, nearly 4 million people visit
SlideShare (just on desktop!). That makes SlideShare the worlds largest professional
content-sharing community. And thats something you cant afford to overlook.
Build Your Brand and Company Presence Organically: Content Marketing On LinkedIn
21
CHAPTER 6
Here are Nine Tips to Help Ensure
Content Domination on SlideShare:
1. K
eep your presentations short and sweet: Between 1030 slides is optimal.
2. B
e visual: Shoot for an average of 19 images in your 1030 slides.
3. Get to the point: Aim for an average of 24 words per slide.
4. B
e the authority on your topic: Choose a topic and own it.
5. Focus on design, and tell a story: Design your deck to pull the reader from one slide
to the next.
6. R
ev up the SEO for each presentation: Include keyword-rich titles, descriptions and
tags in order to give your presentations a fighting chance in the world of search engines
as well as inside the SlideShare search results.
7. Integrate your presentations into multiple channels: SlideShare easily embeds into landing
pages and blogs and renders beautifully in Twitter.
8. R
epurpose your presentations: Slice and dice them into blog posts, infographics,
webinars and videos.
9. Make SlideShare part of every campaign: Add a SlideShare checkbox to your campaign
checklist.
If you dont have a SlideShare account, sign up from LinkedIn to share your presentations
worldwide and drive more views and traffic.
Build Your Brand and Company Presence Organically: Content Marketing On LinkedIn
22
CHAPTER 6
Follow the 4-1-1 Rule
The 4-1-1 Rule was coined by Tippingpoint
Labs and Joe Pulizzi of the Content
Marketing Institute. While it was originally
created with Twitter in mind, it can
successfully be applied to your companys
content marketing strategy using LinkedIn.
Sell something, get a customer for a day. Help someone, get a customer
for life.
Jay Baer, Digital Marketing Strategist, Speaker,
Author and President of Convince & Convert
1 Retweet
4 New Tweets
1 Self-Serving Tweet
Build Your Brand and Company Presence Organically: Content Marketing On LinkedIn
23
CHAPTER 7
Sponsored Content
Sponsored InMail
Display Ads
Dynamic Ads
Text Ads
D
rive traffic and leads to
your site.
24
CHAPTER 7
Sponsored Content: Appear in the LinkedIn Feed and Beyond
Our members are already engaging with
high-quality content from news sites,
thought leaders, their connections, and
brands. With Sponsored Content, you
can join the conversation and appear
along with that content. You can publish
Sponsored Content with rich media and
ensures relevance with robust targeting
functionality. And that means you can
reach the right people at the right time with
your best articles, images, infographics,
PDFs, presentations and videos. Plus,
Sponsored Content is the only way to reach
LinkedIns mobile users at scale, since they
appear in the feed on desktop, tablet and
smartphone.
B
uild relationships with the worlds
professionals. Publish your content
with Sponsored Content to create value
and establish trust that sparks ongoing
conversations and deeper customer
relationships.
TARGETING OPTIONS
Sponsored Content allow you to reach a
targeted audience beyond your Company
Page followers. You can define your
audience using criteria such as location,
company size, industry, job function and
seniority. Remember, theres always a
tradeoff between targeting and audience
size. If you target too specifically, your
content may reach a very small audience.
SPONSORED CONTENT
IS A POWERFUL TOOL TO:
R
aise awareness and shape perception.
Send Sponsored Content to your target
audience to rapidly increase awareness
and shape the perception of your brand,
products and services.
D
rive quality leads. Generate quality
leads by sharing insights that
professionals seek. Watch that content
spread via the peer sharing that occurs
naturally on LinkedIn.
PERFORMANCE TRACKING
You can promote content in 20 languages
across the 200 countries and territories
where we have members. Within a minute
or two of publishing your update, youll see
impression and engagement metricsand
reporting on your post will be updated in
near real time. That means you can track
how well your posts hit the mark and finetune your strategy instantly.
25
CHAPTER 7
HOW SPONSORED CONTENT WORKS
Getting a LinkedIn Company Page is the first step to using Sponsored Updates. All
Sponsored Content must first be created as organic Company Updates.
Similar to an ad unit, a Sponsored Update is sent to members when they visit LinkedIn.
Sponsored Content is clearly distinguished from organic content to make sure our
members can differentiate between organic and paid content. Currently, they are labeled
as Sponsored. Links in Sponsored Content can drive traffic wherever youd like,
including your content portals, relevant news or articles, YouTube or SlideShare channels,
whitepapers and event registration forms.
Sponsored Content is purchased through a second-price auction. Heres how it works:
Each time there is an opportunity for Sponsored Content to be shown, LinkedIn runs an
auction to determine which update to show. For any given auction, there can be many bids
from competing advertisers looking to reach that member. That means when you sponsor
content, your campaign enters an auction to determine whether its shown to your target
audience. Sponsored Content inventory is non-guaranteed, but you may adjust your bid
and content to perform better in the auction.
26
CHAPTER 7
E
stablish robust profiles that make them
discoverable in LinkedIn profile search.
S
hare relevant content consistently from
their personal profile.
R
each out and connect with those from
their target audience that they know but
have yet to connect with.
P
roactively utilize their LinkedIn network
for introductions to key people in their
target audience, using LinkedIn Inmails
when an introduction is not possible.
Engage in relevant groups.
C
reate a group to represent
your company.
P
romote your LinkedIn Company Page,
build up a follower base, and engage
with them.
U
tilize Text Ads potential to help
precisely connect you with your target
audience.
27
CHAPTER 7
Sponsored InMail: Deliver Directly to Members Inboxes
Using Sponsored InMail, you can reach
high-value, targeted prospects on LinkedIn
with attention-grabbing messages that
speak directly to their interests. You can
designate recipients by geography, job
role, group membership, company size
and other criteria.
These notifications are prominently
displayed on the LinkedIn homepage and
in members inboxes for high visibility that
cuts through the clutter. Discover a new
way to increase the effectiveness of your
email marketing effort and drive leads
from LinkedIn. Reach members only when
they are active on the LinkedIn site to
boost engagement.
SPONSORED INMAIL IS IDEAL FOR:
A UNIQUE PRODUCT IN AN
UNCLUTTERED ENVIRONMENT
M
obile-optimized design for easy clicks:
Persistent call-to-action button remains
on top of content while user scrolls.
R
eal-time delivery ensures timely
reach: Sponsored InMail messages
are only delivered when members
are on LinkedIn
Sponsored InMail leverages the credibility of the LinkedIn platform so that they
are more likely to be opened, read and acted on unlike conventional email
campaigns.
U
ncluttered professional context: Strict
delivery frequency caps ensure your
message gets maximum mindshare.
F
lexibility to tailor your content: Send a
personalized message that will resonate
most with your target audience.
B
oosting conversions with targeted
product and service promotions
Promoting
content your audience wants
to see, such as infographics, white
papers, and reports.
P
ersonalizing invitations to
events and conferences.
The flexible format makes it simple to
integrate content and messaging from
across your LinkedIn ecosystem. Accurate
targeting ensures you reach the members
that matter most, from across our network
of over 430 million professionals.
With so many competitors going after the same customers, VistaVu knew it
was time to rethink its strategy. Our goal was to break away from the crowd
by really demonstrating our industry focus and unique value proposition.
For us, it was about getting our message and differentiated product
offerings to the right audience, Not only did we receive more leads, but the
quality and the promise of the leads was unmatched.
Nicole Baron, Marketing Manager, VistaVu Solutions
28
CHAPTER 7
Duke University sees shy-high
conversion rates with Sponsored InMail
Duke Universitys Cross Continent MBA program offers a unique value proposition that
can be difficult to convey through traditional ad formats. Recruiting working professionals
into our global programs has always been a challenge, because our concept is that you
continue in role while earning a world-class MBA, says Elizabeth Hogan, associate dean for
global marketing at Duke. Yet when high-potential professionals in emerging markets think
about business school, they assume it involves quitting their jobs to do an MBA program in
another country, or attending a local school in the evenings or on weekends.
"One of the extraordinary things about this InMail campaigns os that we have
two students starting in August who had never heard of this program when
the received our InMail in March. In the history of my marketing experience
at his school, I've never seen us convert that quickly."
Elizabeth Hogan, Associate Dean, Global Marketing,
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
The majority of applicants to the program in the past have come in from word-of-mouth
referrals. However, Duke wanted to promote the program to new prospects in diverse global
regions who would not have learned about it otherwise.
Hogan rolled out Sponsored InMails targeted by seniority, geography, and degree resulting
in an open rate of 68 percent, 400 percent increase in conversions and sales pipeline
closure speed increased by 300 percent.
29
CHAPTER 7
Agency Lead,
The Independents at AOL
LI: What types of clients should be
leveraging LinkedIn more than they
currently are?
NS: Because of the association of the
content on LinkedIn, as well as with
the audience that goes to the siteany
category where a client is aiming to make
headway from a leadership perspective.
If youre looking to make a leadership
statement and/or be seen curating a point
of view with content, there is a lot of upside
to the LinkedIn proposition.
30
CHAPTER 7
LinkedIn Display Ads
Through LinkedIn Display Ads, you can reach a professional audience in a context where
they actively seek advice and recommendations from brands and companies. All LinkedIn
Display Ad formats leverage the unique depth of our member profile information, offering
targeting by sector, job function, seniority, location and more: a targeted approach that
drives engagement, relevance and response.
DISPLAY FOR AWARENESS AND CONSIDERATION AT SCALE
With LinkedIn Premium Display Ads, you can target the exact audience you want in a
premium uncluttered environment. That makes it easier to use existing ad creative to drive
brand awareness and consideration at scale among LinkedIns audience.
Display Ads give you a fantastic share of voice. Thats because, unlike other digital
publishers, LinkedIn only serves two visual ads on a page at any one time. Combine this
with our powerful targeting capabilities, and its a no-brainer.
Heres an example of how Cathay Pacific realized these benefits: The renowned airline
wanted to increase brand awareness within its target market, so it identified LinkedIn
members who belong to LinkedIn groups related to business travel in Asia. It then
targeted those members with Display Ads and Sponsored Polls. LinkedIns accurate
targeting resulted in 1,324 poll responses from business travelers and a total of 97
product recommendations. According to the international airlines Vice President
Marketing Americas, the campaign was successful in spreading brand awareness and
connecting with customers.
31
CHAPTER 7
Dynamic Ads for personalized targeting
As a sophisticated marketer, you know that
message relevancy is critical to successfully
connecting with target audiences and
driving desired actions. And LinkedIn
Dynamic Ads makes it possible to
accurately target decision makers and
deal influencers with highly relevant,
dynamically generated, customizable
creative on LinkedIn.com. Using Dynamic
Ads, you can:
T
arget the audiences that matter.
Select the audiences you want to reach
based on a wide range of professional
targeting options, including company,
work experience, groups and interests.
C
ustomize your creative; personalize
your message. Craft your ad copy,
choose your call to action and leverage
dynamically generated images from
LinkedIn member profiles.
G
row your company follower count.
Encourage LinkedIn members to
follow your company and build better
relationships with your target audience
with one-click Follow Company
calls to action.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
PUBLISHING ON LINKEDIN
Publishing on LinkedIn gives all
professionals the ability to share their
expertise with the world. Once solely for
the use of an exclusive group of Influencers,
now all members are invited to publish
longform content on LinkedIn.
Using an intuitive blogging tool that
seamlessly integrates with your profile
on LinkedIn, you can publish new and
previously published content on LinkedIn to
quickly grow your audience and network.
Articles posted with the tool are searchable
by keyword in LinkedIns post search box.
If your post is viewed enough times, it can
get picked up by Pulse, LinkedIn's news
app and content brandwhich means you
can grow views, comments and shares by
leaps and bounds.
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CHAPTER 7
Text Ads: Generate quality
leads with an easy, self-serve solution
LinkedIn Text ads is an intuitive, self-service
advertising solution that enables you to
create easily (in minutes), then manage and
optimize customized campaigns targeting
a premium professional audience and drive
high-quality leads to your business on a
budget that works for you.
With Text Ads, you have at your fingertips
the ability to:
E
asily create and launch well-targeted
campaigns with customized creative in
just minutes.
F
ine-tune your target audience based
on location, demographics, skills,
interests and work history to achieve
the right mix of volume and precision.
G
ain meaningful insights into your
campaign and creative performance
with powerful audience segmentation
analytics. and social engagement
measurement tools
Intelligently optimize your budgets, bids
and creative to achieve your branding
and customer acquisition objectives.
33
CHAPTER 7
34
CHAPTER 8
United States
United Kingdom
Trending Content
89%
29%
88%
30%
85%
42%
Sources: Content Marketing in the UK: 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Content Marketing Institute/DMA
UK, Content Marketing in Australia: 2013 Trends Content Marketing Institute/The Association for data-driven
marketing & advertising (ADMA), 2016 B2B Content Marketing TrendsNorth America: Content Marketing Institute/
MarketingProfs
Chapter 8
35
CHAPTER 8
U
nderstand the content and topics
that resonate with your audience.
M
easure the effectiveness of your
content-based campaigns.
BENCHMARK YOUR
CONTENT PERFORMANCE
Think of the Content Marketing Score as
a barometer that helps your company,
product and brand understand the impact
of its content marketing efforts on LinkedIn.
By attributing a Content Marketing Score
to your content, it quantifies the influence
of your company, product and brand on
LinkedIn.
S
ee how you stack up against your
competition.
H
ighlighting the audience(s) consuming
your content on LinkedIn
R
ank your brand with a comprehensive
score.
Q
uantifying your companys content
presence and engagement on LinkedIn
TURN INSIGHTS
INTO CONTENT GOLD
All that information is valuable, but we
know insights are useless unless you can
act upon them. The Content Marketing
Score makes that possible by providing
specific recommendations on defining and
adjusting your content strategy to achieve
the best results possible. These may
include suggestions to experiment with
new ways to increase your follower base by
utilizing Sponsored Updates, encouraging
employees to publish more posts or
focusing on your content relevance.
A Dynamic Duo
Unlike Trending Content, which gives you insight into the hottest topics
across LinkedIn, the Content Marketing Score is specific to your company,
product and brand.
7 of 10
1,200
1,000
CMS Score
Peers:
Blackrock
800
Microsoft
600
400
Dell
Capgemini
Oracle
250
200
0
Best in class
influence
Citi
Amex
Accenture
CLIENT
Weaker content
influence
Salesforce
Chapter 8
36
Next-Level
Content
CHAPTER 8
BE TRENDY (WITH YOUR CONTENT)
Your target audience is on LinkedIn. Now
its just a matter of delivering the content
that attracts and engages them. But how
do you know just which topics will catch
and keeptheir attention? And how do
you know which members will be most
interested in your content? Whether youre
new to content marketing or looking to
drive even more engagement with your
existing content, Trending Content from
LinkedIn can help you focus on the topics
that matter.
On a daily basis, LinkedIn members
actively engage with content from four
primary sources of inspiration, insights and
information on our network:
News from publishers
Your Target
Audience
is on
LinkedIn
THE
TOPICS
THAT
MATTER
WHATS TRENDING
Whats Trending
Top
trending topics on LinkedIn, Sept. 2015Dec. 2015
*Top trending topics on LinkedIn, Nov 14-Jan 15
1 Social Media
Marketing
10 sem
2 Recruiting
9 Social Media
Integrated
Marketing
Employee
Engagement
Marketing
Self-Esteem
Web Marketing
Online
Advertising
Who
Shares Internal
the MostData
Source:
LinkedIn
*Audiences sharing the top 15 most shared articles on LinkedIn, Dec. 2013Jan. 2014
Women
Venture Capitalists
Financial Advisors
Entrepreneurs
Retirement
Career
Changers
Chapter 8
37
CHAPTER 8
Chapter 8
38
CHAPTER 9
CONTENT PARTNERS
Access high-quality professional content
to power your content marketing.
COMPLIANCE PARTNERS
Leverage trusted technology to keep
your LinkedIn marketing compliant with
regulations in financial services and
other industries.
Find a Partner
39
CHAPTER 9
40
4. J
eff Bullas
Consultant, Speaker, Blogger
Blog: jeffbullas.com
Twitter: @jeffbullas
LinkedIn: in/jeffbullas
5. Brian Carter
VP of Marketing at Infinigraph,
Author, Speaker
Blog: briancarteryeah.com/blog/
Twitter: @briancarter
LinkedIn: in/briancarterms
6. B
rian Clark
Founder and CEO of Copyblogger
Blog: copyblogger.com/blog/
Twitter: @copyblogger
LinkedIn: pub/brian-clark/8/606/b5a
7. Heidi Cohen
Columnist
Blog: heidicohen.com/tag/blog/
Twitter: @heidicohen
Linkedin: in/heidicohen
8. S
teven Farnsworth
Chief Digital Strategist at Jolt Digital
Marketing, Author, Speaker
Blog: stevefarnsworth.wordpress.com
Twitter: @steveology
Linkedin: in/stevefarnsworth
9. B
arry Feldman
Owner at Feldman Creative, Speaker
Blog: feldmancreative.com/blog
Twitter: @FeldmanCreative
Linkedin: in/feldmancreative
10. Ann Handley
Head of Content at Marketing
Profs, Author
Blog: marketingprofs.com
Twitter: @annhandley
LinkedIn: /in/annhandley
11. Matt Heinz
President at Heinz Marketing Inc
Blog: heinzmarketing.com
Twitter: @HeinzMarketing
Linkedin: in/mattheinz
12. D
oug Karr
Chief Marketing Officer at CircuPress,
Author
Blog: marketingtechblog.com/author/
douglaskarr/
Twitter: @douglaskarr
Linkedin: in/douglaskarr
13. J
ason Keath
CEO of Social Fresh
Blog: socialfresh.com
Twitter: @jasonkeath
LinkedIn: in/jasonkeath
14. Nichole Kelly
CEO at Social Media Explorer, SME
Digital
Author, Speaker
Blog: socialmediaexplorer.com
Twitter: @Nichole_Kelly
Linkedin: in/nicholekelly
41
23. K
oka Sexton
Global Sr. Marketing Manager
at LinkedIn
Blog: kokasexton.com/word/
Twitter: @kokasexton
Linkedin: in/kokasexton
16. S
tephanie Sammons
Founder of Wired Advisor
Speaker
Blog: blog.wiredadvisor.com
Twitter: @StephSammons
Linkedin: in/stephaniesammons
20. J
oe Pulizzi
Founder at Content Marketing Institute
Author, Speaker
Linkedin: in/joepulizzi
Twitter: @JoePulizzi
Blog: contentmarketinginstitute.com
25. T
odd Wheatland
VP of Marketing at Kelly Services
Author, Speaker
Blog: slide-guidebook.com/
Twitter: @ToddWheatland
Linkedin: in/wheatland
22. N
eal Schaffer
Author, Speaker
Linkedin: in/nealschaffer
Blog: maximizeyoursocial.com/
Twitter: @NealSchaffer
Linkedin: in/nealschaffer
42
CHAPTER 1
Today, LinkedIn has more than 400 million professionals in its network.
Thats more than one-half of the 600 million professionals on the planet
representing the largest group anywhere of influential, affluent, and
educated people. For more information, visit marketing.linkedin.com
43